I have had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 16th of December last. The very gentle and obliging manner in which you have been pleased to express yourself respecting my official conduct very strongly touches my sensibility. The approbation of good men is the greatest reward that can be given for public service, and the hope of obtaining it is amongst the strongest incentives to procure the performance of such services. I hope my successors may have

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a pleasant & easy task to perform. It is difficult even now to tell how I got through mine. I have now gone through a careful investigation of the matters depending between Mr. John Cooper & myself, and intended to have sent you copies by this conveyance of any statements, but they cannot be got ready in time, and as I am about sending a person to investigate & settle my dependencies with the Houses of Hewes & Smith, Henry Smith & Allen & Robert Smith, who will be furnished with all my correspondence & accounts with those Houses, I will deliver Mr. Cooper’s letters & accounts to the same person, with a power of attorney, and I am pretty well convinced that if our accounts are settled on just principles there will be but little coming to Mr. Cooper (nay, I think it highly probable that he will fall in my debt). I propose to get a bill in chancery drawn up & sworn to, so that you may have it filed and obtain an injunction to stop proceedings at common law, after which I apprehend it will be necessary to obtain a commission for taking evidence here, and as I am now master of my time, I will pointedly attend to this matter so that justice may as soon as possible take place between Mr. Cooper & me. You will very soon hear further from me on this subject, & I remain, with sentiments of respect & esteem, Sir,